Federal wildlife officials have agreed to conduct a full, year-long review to determine whether a tiny snail found only in high-desert springs near a huge lithium mine being built along the Nevada-Oregon line should be listed as a threatened or endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a finding published Thursday in the Federal Register that enough scientific exists to warrant the review sought by environmentalists who say that groundwater pumping required for the operation of the Thacker Pass mine could push the Kings River pyrg to the brink of extinction. The Western Watersheds Project argued in its formal petition for the listing in September 2022 that the tiny snail no bigger than the tip of a ball-point pen was imperiled even before any new mining was contemplated due to livestock grazing, round-building and the anticipated impacts of climate change.